Is custom frontend development actually better than using CMS templates?
edit: tnx for the advice, everyone. I finally pulled the plug on the template—it was just holding us back. Decided to go with frontend development services from SoftDoes to rebuild everything from scratch. It’s night and day compared to fighting theme code; the performance is finally where it needs to be, and I don’t have to deal with those layout bugs anymore. Should’ve done this a long time ago. Topic closed.
I am currently working on a site that has outgrown its initial template. I spent way too much time trying to fix layout issues and performance bugs that came with the theme. It feels like I spend more hours fighting the styling constraints than actually improving the user experience for my customers.
I am considering moving to a fully custom frontend build to get total control over the code and performance. I worry about the initial development time but I am exhausted by the limitations of these bloated themes. Has anyone else made this switch recently? Was it worth the effort to dump the template and build something from the ground up?